Luckily for autumn, a console near the airlock was busted open, allowing easy access to the live wires within.Her computer beeped, plugging into the ship's system.'Connecting' it stated."Guys, I'm in" Autumn whispered.

A metallic impact on the outer hull spoke of a late guest; a few lesser clanks told of its further passing."Luckily, that thing's not."

"Computer, localize living crew members" Sunny spoke to Autumn's computer, then gave her an apologetic look. Doctors. Always bossy. I know it, you know it, don't mention it, I am sorry, yes, it will happen again.'Tis strange how much a glance can tell.

Autumn nodded to Sunny, long since used to facial expressions in lieu of conversation, not just form her own kind, but during several old decompression emergency drills where in communications were considered in operable.

Her eyes held minor annoyance, coupled with amusement, making a mental note to ask her about the discrepancy in her ID card, but not now, not when there was a job at hand and danger so close. "If we get to the reactor room and engineering area I can probably by pass the bridge lockout, it will save us cutting through, and the first mate could give us an updated sit rep?"

She threw the question to the group, unsure of the chain of command, noting a bio-hazard placed things in the medical officers purview, yet the decidedly hostile nature of their situation left it within the security officers jurisdiction as well.

Know your place and you'll never lack for direction, an old adage from former pack mates, a pity other species weren't so structured in their hierarchies.

"I ain't got a better idea," Quan shrugged. He wiped the spray of Minerva's blood off the plate of his helmet with an ill-fitting gloved hand. "Still oughta be careful. Who knows what did this, could be a drone or somethin' like it that the comp can't pick up. Betty wouldn't mind the action," he added, patting his sidearm strapped into a holster at his waist, "but I think we would." Quan knocked Jerome's shoulder lightly with the back of his hand. "Y'know what I'm saying, right?"

Their ragtag band made its way down the side corridor - they were on level one, and the entrance to the engineering room four floors below. Unlike Hollen's Prize, the Lilarcor was not designed to spin or use delta-vee to provide a semblance of gravity, thus apparently had inertia compensators and artificial gravity generators - and a gravitic sheath drive. Useful - if only they were operational. Thus, they had to do with the hand holds placed at convenient intervals to pull themselves along.

The synthetic carpeting was randomly torn in places, a roof plate smashed in revealing the darkness above. Quan whistled as he noticed that something orange had escaped from the hidden compartment and was smeared along the wall - and the orange was unmistakably pastel and iridescent. Spice. The drug could not be synthetized, and was horribly illegal almost everywhere. It might have something to do with its propensity to drive people insane - or to awaken rogue psi talents. The Lilarcor was certainly smuggling some high-grade goods, it seemed.

As they neared the descending ladder at the corridor's end, another cluster of bullet dents pock-marked the right-hand wall - the outer wall of the ship... luckily, they had not pierced it! They had struck home, if the stains around them were any indication.The door on the opposite wall was smashed in, like so many others.

A living quarter, trashed - the bunk bed broken, the table smashed through the middle, possessions floating hence and forth.There, stuck in a crevice on the destroyed table, an arm - or rather, the bones, intact to the middle of the forearm. The cut seemed perfectly clean - and so did the bones.

Sunny whispered: "How long ago did the Lilarcor go missing? The bone looks fresh, but is utterly clean - and there are no bite marks to indicate it was gnawed upon by... rats, for example."Then she added hesitantly: "And there's no body - where are all the bodies?"

They were able to trace the source of the bullets - a bent SMG, its magazine spent. Thirty shots, seven holes in the wall.

"Huh, who writes diaries by hand these days?" Jerome smirked. "Looks like it belonged to some wench called Erica.""Read this: 'We caught the buggers; easy like taking candy from a baby. They went down from the tranq shots like nothing, really not the greatest tacticians without their head honchos around, too. Once NeoGen has homogenized these bastards and regressed them to stem cells, this should solve their graft compatibility problem with their ever-so-secret Gilgamesh series. They'll pay well too - after that fiasco at Veradani.' NeoGen? Girl was playing with the 'Corps."

"Oh, there's more, apparently - she copied the systematics to the drive feeds..."Autumn gave the drawings a glance: "...and marked the accessible weak 'bottleneck' spots. Why is this suspicious?"

The diary's pages were smeared with blood in places - but according to the pattern... "Blood that was wiped away with a wet rag?" Sunny mused.

The clangs of the drone probing the outer hull drove them back from their musings into reality.

The ship shuddered slightly.

« Last Edit: March 31, 2014, 05:36:04 PM by EchoMirage »

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Autumn cast a wary eye at the hull, confident the drone would have trouble forcing an entrance in a timely fashion, less confident and the trouble it would have forcing its way inside through an exterior breach.

"Let's not linger, the help that behemoth out their called for will be here all too soon," She reminded them, grabbing the marked schematics and giving the group a nod. "Let's hope the survivor in the engineering section is still reasonably sane and hasn't sabotaged things beyond separability."

Jerome agreed silently, moving in front to do his duty. His job was to keep the team from being shot, something he had not succeeded well in thus far, and to shoot things. Neither was actionable at the moment...

The emergency lighting was shattered systematically in the lower decks, plunging the ship into an inky darkness.Cauciously, sheathed in a paucity of words, the crew of the Prize descended, ragging themselves 'down' along the ladders.

The ship was warm, more than it had the right to be, if its life support operating on the lowest setting was any indication.Finally, their headlights illuminated a simple '4' on the wall. The floor panels surrounding the descent into level 5 were torn out; a bloody trail led from the busted opening towards the stern. Here too, futile attempts were made to wipe the synthetic carpet clean.

Thunk.

They heard something bash against a metal surface. Inside the ship."The captain is on board" a closing male voice echoed from the direction of the prow - or one of the connecting perpendicular passages?"The captain is on board" the voice repeated, with the same tone, closer.

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Sunny's head tendrils were confined within her helmet, unable to unfurl, her Soul half-blind, and ever so distant from the nearest biosphere in the cold of space.It had one benefit - she could feel several presences which the computer had not accounted for, and one very weak human close by.

"The captain is on board" the voice stated, behind the closest corner; scratching against the plates could be heard."Surrender ... the Flawed ... and negotiate" it commanded, stitching words to each other as someone unaccustomed to their meaning.

Then, the ship shook as a close wall was torn down.

A noise from behind startled them - a crouched sinewy reptilian beast, six-legged, its sizable head covered in a bony shield, armed with wicked talons that allowed it to cling to the carpeted floor - briefly, before it leaped towards Jerome - and sailed past, unaccustomed to free fall, much like a ridiculous flailing balloon.Strangely, most of its appendages had strangely new skin, compared to the rest - and two looked positively human.

"So much for the danger - it would have helped them if they had turned off the gravity in the first place" Quan chuckled. Landlubbers should not face off with true spacers.

The comical interlude was interrupted by a further reptilian, serpentine and flexible, bursting from the overhead ventilation grate, wrapping around Jerome, its claws and teeth trying to find a chink in his armor while its many eyes independently studied its prey.

In the confusion, a third rushed in, more humanoid than the other two, but with lethal barbs akin to those of a velociraptor on its digitigrade legs and aspikes along its exceedingly long tail. Using it masterfully to propel itself in zero G, it ambushed Autumn, gashing deep cuts into her suit, and left arm and left leg. Luckily, no lethal blow!First blood, Autumn takes 2 health levels of damage.

enjoy some epic dubstep

What did the Lilarcor carry, a menagerie?

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Autumn let out a growl of caution as the first creature appeared, training her hand cannon on it as it sailed by and bracing herself against the wall in anticipation of the recoil, the second creatures appearance redirecting her attention as Jerome was engulfed in serpentine coils.

"On it Jerome!" She yelled, drawing her combat blade with her left hand, (in reality, more of a double toothed short sword) and tensing to propel herself into melee range with the bizarre chimera, the ambush from behind escaping her notice until it was already on top of her.

With a snarl of fury struggled to rip her arm free of the tail shredding into her suit , angling her over sided revolver to discharge two shots point blank into its upper torso, the plasma propellant powering the depleted uranium rounds forward with a sharp electronic snap, reserving her flechette round for a cluster of foes.

The feeling of pressure change as her suits integrity was comprised was quickly eclipsed by the stabbing lances of pain as she felt her flesh and fur ripped by the bony protrusions.

78 to pull free of the barbed tail around my arm34 for the double tap of .454 charge rounds into the things chest72 to resist pain/toxins if applicable?Longspeak was in chat at the time to witness validity of rolls if anyone's curious)

Jerome was thankful for switching to the far smaller smg and strove to put the barrel against the creature, having the presense of mind to flick off the targeting system as he did. Having the autoturret fire at this alien would be disasterous. As soon as he got it lined up and not pointed at him, he fired, the hyperpnumatic rounds loud but flameless.(00:18:03) Minion: valadaar rolls 1d100 and gets 63

Quan had already started to draw Betty from her holster when the other two creatures tumbled in, attacking Jerome and Autumn. And V'rak, while dexterous in fine motor skills, were a little slower starting when it came to the gross motor. Quan was already aiming for the flailing six-legged creature and didn't have time to readjust and shoot for the attackers.

He squinted beneath his shaded goggles and squeezed the trigger of his CL-Ξ7. The coil made a brief, high-pitched whine and a razored flechette lanced out of the barrel at the creature, buzzing like an angry hornet.(07:17:23) Minion: Dozus rolls 1d100 and gets 34.

What were these things?! They were certainly hostile though. No cuddly wuddly's these! Wanting a target not in proximity to an ally, Summer fired her dart at the six-legged thing that floated around aimlessly, hoping the inertia of space wouldn't slow it too much.

I have no idea what to roll, so I'll roll a d100 I guess, (20:15:36) Minion: Gossamer rolls 1d100 and gets 17. Well, that can't be good...

The deathly embrace of Autumn's newfound companion was brief, as her shotgun turned the toothy critter into fine mist. Blood sprays fan out beautifully in zero gravity, an ever-expanding galaxy of red dots.

Jerome saw his bullets spray wide as he rotated weightlessly, being gnawed upon and the recoil of the SMG spinning him ever faster - only to see Sunny fire an envenomed needle into an exposed area of the thing's throat, and the poor creature twitching in agony - a marked difference from its predatory writhing before!

Quan cheered on as he fired at the last assailant, wounding it with his needler - when the wall to their left burst open, torn by a number of bladed appendages and two crustacean-like claws. An armored predatory head pushed out, its horned face-plate interrupted by several eye-slits on the left - and by a socket into which a human head was set on the right. It still wore a rogatyvka with gold laurels to accompany its moustache and beard.

Matter-of-factly it informed them: "The captain is on board."It lashed out to grab Jerome, but luckily, its massive bulk and numerous limbs meant it was rather confined in the hole it had torn.

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Autumn shoved the dying beast away from her with a growl, the momentum pushing her back against the bulk head where she landed with a practiced crouch where she quick took stock fo the situation, the burning pain of her own flesh wounds an easily ignored distraction, for now at least.

The eruption of the armored behemoth though the wall took her by surprise, it's mimicry of intelligent speech even more so. With a flick of her thumb she switched her hand cannon over to it's secondary fire mode, a single shot of 12 gauge flechettes stored in a separate barrel under the first, similar to the ancient Lemat of Earth history. "I'll be clear of the fire line in a moment." She offered as explanation as she propelled herself towards the monstrosity, intending on jamming her huge pistol into the monstrosities mouth, yanking the trigger once and then kicking away, hopefully before it freed itself from it's walled prison.

Autumn's wounds, coupled with the flailing of the Captain's many limbs and zero G made the shot a difficult endeavour. Knocked aside by a pincer, she floated along the corridor, landing feet first.

"Insubordination" the Captain's embedded head stated, to turn to the others.

"Collect the goods" it turned back to the rest of the crew, and the six-limbed critter obeyed, flinging itself towards Jerome, who had barely disentangled himself from the serpentine corpse. Its claws dug into his mechanical leg with a sickening crunch. At least the thing was rather surprised at finding metal and not flesh within.

Helia was shaken by the behemoth's sudden emergence, but at least she knew where the weak human she sensed was - the captain's head was still alive.

« Last Edit: April 07, 2014, 05:00:27 AM by EchoMirage »

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

Quan felt quite sure that, if not for the goggles strapped to his head, his eyes would have popped out of their sockets. He'd seen things in space, things planethuggers wouldn't or couldn't believe. But this?

This was messed up.

He was distracted from the newcomer "captain" by the surviving lizard. The six-legged thing he'd just shot leapt to Jerome, which perturbed Quan. "Hey, try that on me, ya space gecko!" He swung Betty around and fired another shot, aiming for its scaly head.

Acting on instinct not even stopping to consider, Sunny jumped up and somersaulted to reverse herself, her tail grabbed hold of a pipeline and her heels touched down on the ceiling, she reached her arms straight down above the shelled creature, waited for the head to show itself and then fired a new poisoned needle straight into the soft tissue.

Autumn shifted her balance at she felt her paws connect with the hull of the ship once more, Raising her cannon and flicking the switch back over to it's primary charge slugs as she braced herself against a near by panel and aimed carefully down he captains gullet, hoping to lodge a bullet somewhere deeper inside, and if not kill it, than at least slow it down or force it into retreat. She squeezed the trigger twice, adjusting her aim and barking a few well chosen curses in her native tongue.

(16:20:17) Minion: Silveressa rolls 1d100 and gets 72. For her first shot.(16:20:25) Minion: Silveressa rolls 1d100 and gets 14. For her second shot.

Jerome's hail of bullets clattered without effect off the bony facial shield; very much like a lid obscuring an eyeball, a leathery membrane briefly covered the embedded head, laving it slightly slimier than before after withdrawing.Sunny's needle stuck in the bony plate, likely not reaching any sufficiently perfused tissue to deliver its toxic payload.

Slightly stumped at the absence of a loving welcome, the monstrosity attempted to seize Jerome with its pincers, to take him along for a bit of company, but Autumn's shotgun blast drove it back, giving the soldier enough time to withdraw.

Luckily, the beast was still stuck in the wall it had breached!Or not.With the squeal of bending metal, if finally gave way, allowing it to burst fully into the corridor, its stocky reptilian body carried by six legs.

It scanned the stunned spacers, studying them with is many beady eyes and the two human ones, then made up its mind and made its way towards Sunny, grabbing her in its mighty claw - but, for some reason, not squeezing.

"No one gets left behind."

Its other claws opened.

How does one stop such a thing?

« Last Edit: April 07, 2014, 05:34:05 PM by EchoMirage »

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"